Letters

Liberal elite

John Harris rightly queries the neglect of the class issue in the remit of the Speaker's conference (If we want more representative MPs, we need to start talking about class, November 17), but Tony Wright MP's assessment, quoted by Harris, is off the mark. The Labour party did not come into existence "because the Liberals were refusing to choose working-class candidates", but rather because the Liberal party was incapable of welcoming working-class politicians into the top echelons of the party.

There were working-class Liberal MPs and ministers, but they were there by grace and favour. Some Liberal organisers tried to change the composition of the party but failed, so much so that in 1903 the Liberal chief whip, Herbert Gladstone, constructed a pact with the Labour party which - disastrously for the Liberals - gave them 30 MPs.

If the political parties continue to be based on narrow definitions of management competence rather than political philosophy, the working class will always be at a disadvantage.Michael MeadowcroftLeeds